19th Annual It Only Takes A Spark Cancer Walk Results

Total Raised: $133,100*

Great weather, but a little on the hot side at this year’s 19th Annual It Only Takes A Spark Cancer Walk. Much appreciation and thanks goes out to all our teams and volunteers for this year’s walk. Without them and the great people in the greater Grant County area, we couldn’t raise such funds. A HUGE Thank You again to all of you! Nearly 2600 luminaries were sold in honor or memory of resulting in over 1100 names to be read at the walk.

Because of the hot weather, attendance was down. Though a great crowd was still present to enjoy the picnic arranged by Jim Trevett of Trevett’s Cafe, and his countless volunteers, with the Kiwanis club serving.

A beautiful rendition of the national anthem was sang by Amberly Warren. The lap of life was led off by Wayde Fraasch as our honorary chair along with many cancer survivors. Our two new teams with the walk this year were the C-Team and Poet Biorefining. The C-Team, led up by Kim Bjerke sold well over 6000 cupcakes to raise funds for this year’s efforts. That is a lot of baking and decorating. This also awarded them the Year Round and the top Non-Corporate fundraising team awards. Poet Biorefining showcased an ethanol fueled Nascar car and it was checked out by many.

The teams continue to get more creative each year and choosing the team for creative campsite was challenging. The creative campsite was awarded to the Frozen themed team held by Great Western Bank. The pictures you could take with Frozen characters was a big hit and if your child dressed up, you got a special treat. They also did very well in fundraising this year to come out as the top corporate fundraising team.

The inflatables were a huge hit again this year along with the balloon launcher. Many people also stuck around to attend the live auction which included a variety of baskets, hand crafted items, and plants assembled by teams or donated to the walk. All of which raised over $6000 to the walk. A fantastic display of fireworks also was enjoyed which was donated by Poppers Fireworks, Betty’s Fireworks and Roger McCulloch. Zumba and the team competitions helped keep the teams active through the night and the Bulldog team won the most points over all to award them a pizza party donated by Pizza Hut.

A big shout-out goes to the Merchants Fighting Cancer, led up by Twin Valley Tire, for assembling a great list of items to raffle off. They raised another $15,000 for the cancer walk. Over the past 7 years, they’ve raised $75,000 for It Only Takes A Spark. Also another shout out goes to the Marching Medics for their phenomenal luminary sales. They sold almost 600.

Some fun was also had with “Give Cancer the Boot”. Purple boots, donated by Runnings, were decorated by the teams and displayed at various locations around Milbank to collect the loose change from the community. This idea came up just a few weeks before the walk. It raised a community challenge to root for their favorite team. Great Western Bank raised the most funds and were presented a travelling award. We plan to have the boots to show up at events and businesses throughout the year.

There will be two spots opening up on the core committee this year. Angie Johnson will be leaving after 4 years of service. Matt Scott is also leaving after 3 years. Both were presented plaques by Amanda Cummins and thanked for their service to It Only Takes A Spark.

We challenge anyone interested in helping out in any creative way or becoming a team to contact us to continue the fight against cancer and helping those affected by cancer in our community. If interested about the core committee, you are asked to get in contact with one of the current members or email us at contactus@takesaspark.org.

All it takes is a little spark to make a difference and we certainly have a LOT OF SPARK in this community. Thank you again to all our sponsors, teams, volunteers and the community for another successful year!

Photos
Check out our photo gallery here from Tracie Grant Photography.
Can also visit pictures from the Valley Express here.

* The amount includes some various estimates from additional parties, but is believed to be a good representation of funds raised this year. It was another absolutely AMAZING year!!!